Spider-Man 4 Updates: Dunst In, Morbius Out

Today, thanks to NYPost and Filmstalker, we have two pretty significant pieces of news relating to the upcoming Spider-Man 4 for you. One relating to Kirsten Dunst’s involvement with the film, the other relating to the rumors of the vampire character Morbius being a villain within the fourth movie.

Firstly, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane…

The last we heard about Kirsten Dunst returning as Mary Jane in Spider-Man 4, director Sam Raimi had said he very much wants to see her return. Not long after, he revealed that he had met with her to talk about her possible return. So on the Mary Jane front, it was looking very likely that Dunst would reprise her role. Today, we have confirmation from producer Todd Black that Dunst is, “definitely on-board,” to return in Spider-Man 4 as Peter Parker’s love interest, Mary Jane.

Black revealed some tidbits about Spider-Man 4 while promoting the upcoming Denzel Washington/John Travolta thriller The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, one of which was the confirmation of Dunst returning to the successful superhero franchise. I think this news won’t come as a surprise to many, but at least after the months of speculation, we now have confirmation from one of the key filmmaking players.

On a related note to the character of Mary Jane, there were rumors going around that the Spider-Man 4 script featured a wedding between her and Peter Parker (which Spider-Man fans will know is a storyline published in the 1987 comic, The Wedding!). However, that appears to have been news to Black – he has no knowledge of such a marital subplot. So either he is being kept in the dark by Raimi and co. (which is very unlikely) or marriage is off the table for Peter and Mary Jane, at least for the fourth movie.

Now onto the much talked about issue of who the villain will (and will not) be in Spider-Man 4…